Explanation: Literary critic M Achuthan passed away on 9 April 2017 following age-related illness at a private hospital in Kochi. He was 87. He is survived by his wife and daughters.

Achuthan began his career as a critic by challenging the views of literary stalwarts Kuttikrishna Marar and Joseph Mundassery.

Achuthan had 10 works to his credit.

His book on the poems of Edassery is one of his noted works. His works include ‘Swathanthrya Samaravum Malayala Sahithyavum’, ‘Paschathya Sahitya Darshanam’ and ‘Cherukadha Innale Innu’ among others.

He had also served various stints in his career including his term as the Chief Public Relations Officer of the state, as the Director of State Institute of Publications, as the President of Sahithya Pravarthaka Sahakarana Sangham and as the President of Samastha Kerala Sahithya Parishat.

He translated Thousand and One Nights into Malayalam.

He was awarded with the Sahitiya Akademi award in 1976 for his literary works.

Born in June 1930, Achuthan completed his MA in Malayalam Literature with first rank.

Explanation: India has moved forward for safety legislation with the Lok Sabha passing the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The changes are significant as they will, for the first time, acknowledge the fundamental reordering of mobility with the introduction of laws recognizing app-based taxi operators.

A bill to unleash radical reforms in the transport sector by ensuring 100 per cent e-governance, checking bogus driving licenses and vehicle thefts, slapping heavy penalty on traffic violators and protecting the good samaritan was approved by the Lok Sabha on April 10.

In a first, the new Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill will allow the government to modify or amend any norm for the better application of rules.

The bill focuses on improved citizen centric services, reducing the number of accidents and steps to reduce work load on regional transport offices.

The bill also proposes hefty penalties for various traffic offences, three-year jail term for parents of minors caught driving and causing fatal accidents, and a ten-fold increase in compensation for the families of accident victims, among other things.

The Bill not only clearly defines guidelines for the taxi aggregators but also lists for–amending the existing categories of driver licensing, recall of vehicles in case of defects, protection of good samaritans from any civil or criminal action, and increase of penalties for several offences under the 1988 Act.

Another focus is e-Governance.

Enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period for driving licenses, and doing away with the educational eligibility criteria for licenses are some of the features of the Bill.

On March 31, in 2016, the union cabinet approved the changes in the Motor Vehicles Act.

The bill introduced in Parliament last year had proposed 89 clauses for amendment out of which only 57 were accepted by the Parliament Standing Committee on Transport.

The Bill amends the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to address issues such as third party insurance, regulation of taxi aggregators and road safety.

Under the Act, the liability of the third party insurer for motor vehicle accidents is unlimited.

The amendment caps the maximum liability for third party insurance in case of a motor accident at INR 10 lakh in case of death and at five lakh rupees in case of grievous injury.

However, the Bill does not cap the compensation amount that courts can award. The Bill provides for a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, which would provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in India for certain types of accidents.

It defines taxi aggregators, guidelines for which will be determined by the Union Government.

Bill also provides for protection of good samaritans from any civil or criminal action, and increase of penalties for several offences under the 1988 Act.

Explanation: Taking its second biggest decision since coming to power, the Uttar Pradesh government on April 11, 2017 decided to waive surcharge on electricity dues.

It also gave nod to an agreement with the Centre to ensure 24X7 power supply by October 2018.

The MoU between UP and the Centre would be signed in the presence of Yogi and Union power minister Piyush Goyal.

The surcharge waiver would cost the state exchequer around INR 3,500 crore.

Also, in a first, the UP government has decided to purchase potatoes directly from farmers to cut wastage of the crop due to shortage of cold storages.

Coming in support of the UP government, the Centre approved procurement of 1 lakh metric tonne (MT) of potatoes in the state under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) during 2016-17 crop year (July-June).

The approval is in tune with the UP cabinet's decision to procure potatoes so that the farmers are not forced to sell it at throwaway prices in summer.

The purchase will be made at Rs 4,870 per MT. The agriculture ministry will provide an additional Rs 1,217.50 per MT for overhead expenses.

In another decision, the government gave nod to short-term mining policy, allowing district magistrates to give permits for mining for a limited period to plug the shortfall of sand and building material.

The permit, to be given in 10 days, will be issued through e-tendering.

Yogi Adityanath: Know More

Born: 5 June 1972 Pauri Garhwal district

Education: Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University

Party: Bharatiya Janata Party

Deputy: Keshav Prasad Maurya, Dinesh Sharma

10) According to Amnesty International, which country executes more people than all other nations combined?

Explanation: China executed more people in 2016 than all other nations combined, Amnesty International said Tuesday, even as death penalties in the world decreased overall.

The human rights organisation estimates the Asian giant alone killed thousands of people, a figure based on examinations of court records and news reports.

All other countries together executed at least 1,032 people last year–a decline of 37 percent compared to 2015. Of those, 87 percent took place in just four countries namely Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

Amnesty’s report found that hundreds of death sentences, including cases involving foreign nationals, had been omitted from China’s public database of court verdicts.

This is suggesting a concerted effort to hide the extent of the country’s killings.

The ruling Communist Party considers the death toll a state secret.

Despite local media reports saying at least 931 individuals were executed between 2014 and 2016, only 85 of them were in the online database.

In 2013, China’s Supreme People’s Court ruled that legal judgements should be made public, but the decision included many exceptions, including cases involving state secrets or personal privacy.

Previous estimates from other rights groups also put the number of annual executions in China in the thousands.

Chinese courts have a conviction rate of 99.92 percent, and concerns over wrongful verdicts are fuelled by police reliance on forced confessions and the lack of effective defence in criminal trials.

The nation’s top judge, Zhou Qiang, apologised in 2015 for past miscarriages of justice and said mistakes must be corrected.

In December 2016, a Chinese court cleared a man executed 21 years ago for murder, citing insufficient evidence in the original trial.

However experts say recent reforms have not been widely implemented.

A 2016 report from the US-based Dui Hua Foundation said China’s average death row prisoner waits only two months for execution.

The United States executed 20 last year, the lowest figure for the country since 1991.

11) What does PNIPAM stand for, in the context of ferrofluid emulsion?

Explanation: Visual, non-invasive monitoring of body temperature of patients without using a thermometer may become a reality soon, thanks to the work carried out by a team of scientists at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, near Chennai.

The concept is based on ferrofluid emulsion contained in a thin film that changes colour with rise in temperature within a narrow range - 30-40° C.

Till now ferrofluid was used as a magnetic stimuli-responsive material.

Scientists now found that in the presence of a temperature-sensitive polymer - poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), also known as PNIPAM) - the ferrofluid emulsion can be used as a thermally tunable grating to produce different colours.

The adsorbed polymer swells and collapses upon changing the temperature between 32° and 36° C.

This change was clearly manifested as colour change.

From this observation came the novel idea of using PNIPAM-stabilised emulsions as a multistimulii grating.

This is a first of its kind approach where the grating spacing can be tuned either by changing the temperature or by changing the magnetic field strength.

Up to about 34° C, the polymer is highly hydrated and swollen due to repulsive interaction between individual monomer segments.

But when the temperature crosses 34° C, the polymer becomes dehydrated leading to a collapsed state.

The polymer will once again become hydrated and swollen when the temperature falls below 34° C.

Scientists can use additives to tune the collapse of the polymer to higher temperature to reflect fever condition.

Using magnetic fields, the scientists first achieved a particular ordering (spacing between the arrays of emulsion droplets) of emulsion and got a particular colour.

When polymer is added as a stabiliser and the temperature is increased, the grating spacing of the polymer changes and gives rise to a different colour or spacing.

“The colour given off at normal temperature can be fixed by changing the emulsion property and magnetic field strength,” Dr. Philip says.

If the normal temperature is fixed at yellow, the change will be to green when the temperature increases.

Colour with higher wavelength is produced at lower temperature and colour of lower wavelength at higher temperature.

12) Which group of nations condemned the chemical attack in Syria holding President Bhashar al Assad responsible?

Explanation: Foreign Ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) countries and several other West Asian countries spoke with one voice at a meeting in Lucca, Italy, condemning the chemical attack in Syria that left 89 people dead.

The US and its allies held Syrian President Bhashar al-Assad responsible for the attacks.

The G7 also lent support to the U.S. for its attack on the Syrian government-controlled Shayrat airfield in Homs province last Thursday.

While the G7 united to isolate Mr. Assad diplomatically and urged Russia to do the same, no agreement was reached on sanctions against Russia for supporting the Syrian regime.

Some experts hold that the chemical attack and the US strike may not change the situation in Syria dramatically.

All About G-7 Countries

Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

France: President François Hollande

Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel

Italy (2017 Chair): Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni

Japan: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

United Kingdom: Prime Minister Theresa May

United States: President Donald Trump

13) Which novel that received the US national book award also won the Pulitzer 2017 for fiction?

a. The Underground Railwayb. The Underground Railroadc. The Underground Raild. None of the above

Explanation: Scientists have developed an app to tap the prehistoric acoustics that swirled around Britain's ancient monument Stonehenge over the last 5,000 years.

A team of researchers spent eight years creating an app that allows you to hear the different noises the stones generated at various points over thousands of years.

While most modern archaeologists generally agree Stonehenge was some sort of prehistoric temple aligned to the movements of the sun, the researchers found the stones also had surprisingly sonorous properties.

This is one of the few human-made places where you’d have heard these kind of acoustic effects."

The app allows listeners to wander amongst the standing stones while listening to an interactive soundscape–including the sound of birds and the wind moving through the stones.

Stonehenge: Know More

Address: Amesbury, Salisbury SP4 7DE, UK

Construction started: 3100 BC

Designated: 1986 (10th session)

Region: Europe and North America

16) IT department has introduced which initiative in addition to physical PAN cards?

Explanation: The IT department has issued Permanent Account Number (PAN) within a day to 19,704 newly incorporated companies till March 31, 2017.

In addition to physical PAN card, CBDT has introduced the Electronic PAN (e-PAN) card, which is sent by email to all applicants, including individuals.

Applicant would be benefited by having a digitally signed E-PAN card which they can submit as proof of identity to other agency electronically directly or by storing in the Digital Locker (https://digilocker.gov.in).

The PAN issue was mandated by CBDT, the apex policy making body of the Income Tax department.

The newly incorporated companies have also been issued Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) simultaneously with PAN as the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has tied up with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) under which companies can submit a common application form.

Applicant companies submit a common application form SPICe (INC 32) on MCA portal and once the data of incorporation is sent to CBDT by the MCA, PAN and TAN are issued immediately without any further intervention of the applicant.

The Certificate of Incorporation (COI) of newly incorporated companies includes the PAN in addition to the Corporate Identity Number (CIN).